Trumped up lies about innocent immigrants

Immigrants up, crime down

Editorial Board echo ~ published in The Times-Tribune, in Pennsylvania

From the day Trump entered the presidential race in 2015 by demonizing Mexican immigrants, he has relied on the notion that illegal immigration increases violent crime to press his agenda for a border wall, travel bans and similar policies.

But a vast study by four universities across 200 U.S. metropolitan areas, large and small, demonstrates that the opposite is true.

Overall since 1980, as reported by the Upshot feature of The New York Times, immigration of all kinds to the United States has increased by 118 percent while crime has decreased by 36 percent over the same period.

Some of the largest increases in immigration and largest decreases in crime have occurred in the largest metropolitan areas, “sanctuary cities” that are the focus of the administration’s anti-immigration crackdown. New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, experienced some of the largest immigration increases and declines in crime.

The findings are not uniform for each metropolitan area. Some experienced increases in crime as immigration rose. But in almost all cases, the increases in crime were smaller than the increases in immigration.

Researchers did not attempt to show cause and effect. They did not assert that the declines in crime were because of the increases in immigration. It is possible that there is such a cause and effect, but it also is possible that there is no relation between the two. (Nevertheless, the correlation can be proven accurate over time, with continued analysis.)

But it is clear that a wave of immigration has not produced a wave of crime, contrary to the president’s repeated assertions. 

Congress must base immigration policy on the facts rather than hype (and ignore Donald Trump's lies!).